|
RUSSIA-EU SUMMIT
VIKTOR MIRONENKO,
Chief Research Fellow of the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
In the run-up to the Russia-EU Summit, one can say with certainty only that the Summit will start preparing the new Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation.
The previous Agreement has been valid since 1994 and now it’s out of date. Russia has drastically changed, and the present situation demands that a new Agreement between Moscow and Brussels should be signed. This idea has been repeatedly made public by Russian President Vladimir Putin. And the EU agrees with this position.
In particular, this was highlighted in the recent address of the Portuguese Ambassador in Russia to the Institute of Europe made on November 22. Portugal will be a successor to Germany as the EU President, so the Ambassador’s opinion takes on special significance.
His address implies the following conclusion: the EU believes that the new Agreement should not be temporary and should contain the strategic aim of the relations between Russia and the EU.
The both parties have perceptions of what should be done, but nobody can say why it should be done. In a way, the relations between Russia and the EU seemed to follow the principle “progress is everything, goal is nothing”.
Europe is interested in formulating this goal. Therefore, despite Poland’s wish to deprive the European Commission of the mandate to carry on the negotiations, the work on the Agreement is unlikely to be deranged.
In the course of the Summit many countries will follow the logic of political pragmatism and try to solve their pressing problems.
It comes natural that particular attention will be given to the energy issues. The EU insists that Russia should ratify the Energy Charter it signed. However I think that now Russia cannot ratify this document. Russia is not ready to admit the Western companies to its gas and oil transportation network. Neither the EU countries are ready to admit Gazprom to their distribution networks.
It is necessary to realize that Russia’s refusal to ratify the Charter does not mean that it refuses to cooperate with Europe in the energy sphere. Russia would like to cooperate with Europe. So, there is no doubt that either the energy cooperation will be discussed at the negotiations during the preparation of the Agreement or will be covered in the documents enclosed to the Agreement.
November 23, 2006
|
